MANHATTAN

There was a certain type of madness to the Manhattan Project, America’s race to create the atomic bomb before Germany and Japan did during World War II.

Much of the massive undertaking — at a cost of $2 billion (some $26 billion in today’s terms) — was centered in an ultrasecret windswept outpost in Los Alamos, N.M.

Neither then-Vice President Harry Truman nor Congress knew of its existence. Yet geniuses by the truckload were being shipped into the facility, being built from the ground up, in the attempt to split the atom and make the most devastating weapon that mankind would ever use.

This hotbed of brilliance and intrigue is the setting for WGN America’s new 13-part drama “Manhattan.” Judging by the first two episodes, the fictional series has the potential to be fairly explosive itself.

We first find Charlie Isaacs (Ashley Zukerman), one of the young scientists recruited for the project, and his wife, Abby (Rachel Brosnahan) lost in the high desert looking for Los Alamos.

It is 1943, and Charlie doesn’t know what he will be working on, only that it will be something important. When he finally does learn about the “gadget,” he can’t even tell his wife about it. In effect, they become high-security prisoners, albeit with privileges but always under suspicion for what they know or might know.

(Security rightfully bordered on the paranoid. While the Germans and the Japanese never penetrated the secret, a British scientist eventually gave information to the Soviet Union.)

Many of those at Los Alamos were in their 20s and 30s. The type of adrenaline and scientific agility needed for the project is more often seen in the young. The head of the project, J. Robert Oppenheimer (Daniel London), one of the few real figures in the series, was only 39 in 1943. Of course, as brilliant as one may be scientifically, it doesn’t make you wise, and the burden to produce would drive many of those at the facility to the edge and over.

One of the old hands of the project is Frank Winter (John Benjamin Hickey), who is leading one of the teams designing the bomb. High-pressure competition was part of the process. His wife, Liza (Olivia Williams), is an accomplished botanist, but like all the spouses — few of the scientists were women — she must play a secondary role.

Creator-writer Sam Shaw and director Thomas Schlamme (“The West Wing”) do a more than worthy job of creating this world. Knowing the fate of war might rest on their shoulders, many of those involved were pushed to the breaking point.

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Schlamme’s direction is atmospheric, giving the sense of claustrophobia even in the barren openness of the desert. Shaw’s writing is sharp, capturing the highs and lows of the ever-shifting emotions. A particularly poignant moment early on is when Frank confesses his feelings to a worker at the base, who can’t understand a word he says.

Hickey humanizes Frank, who also is tough enough to do what needs to be done, and Williams makes Liza a formidable character.

Historically, the Manhattan Project was high drama — the world was at stake. The series “Manhattan” creditably captures that.